Machine and method for mixing fibers



Oct. 3, 1933 OpA. BENOIT MACHINE AND METHOD FOR MIXING FIBERS FiledMarch 11, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTO QA M ATTORN EY Oct. 3, 1933. o.A. BENOIT MACHINE AND METHOD FOR MIXING FIBERS Filed March 11, 1931 2Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 3, 1933 UNITED STATES MACHINE ANDMETHOD FOR LflxlNG FIBERS Oliver A. Benoit, Lawrence, Mass.

Application March 11,

4 Claim.

This invention relates to machines and processes of mixing textilefibers.

In manufacturing fibers into yam, woven material, knit goods or bats offelting, it is desirable that the resulting material should have thesame consistency and in many cases the same color whether on the firstday of the mix or on the last day.

This invention is particularly useful in mixing fibers of wool, cottonor similar material.

In the manufacture of woolen and worsted cloth, different grades of woolare used and particularly different colors of wool fibers and sometimescotton and wool are used to make a predetermined blend and it isespecially desirable that all yarn or cloth which is supposed to be of acertain consistency, color mixture or both should be the same at alltimes.

In order to understand this device accurately, it will be necessary toconsider that the usual way of mixing wool is as follows:

In a bin perhaps fifteen to twenty feet square, from five to tenthousand pounds of wool is placed by hand by several workmen.

The total quantity, for instance, of each color is weighed out and theneach color is spread in a layer, then another color etc. until all of itis in place.

Such a bed is usually located directly in front of a mixing picker andthis mixing picker is idle while the bed is being laid. When the bed islaid, the picker is started and an operator picks up an armful of thestock endeavoring to pick it up edgewise, usually with not much success,and dumps this into the hopper of the picker.

Such a mixing picker mixes the stock fed to it reasonably well, but itis obvious that there are no two armfuls of stock which contain theright proportion of each kind or color of stock, as it is all done byguess work, and when one armful has been taken, the stock tends to fallinto the resulting hole so that different armfuls contain differentproportions of stock.

The purpose of this invention is accomplished by handling the stock inbatches or masses of a convenient size for one operator. Each batch ormass is built up by placing layers of stock horizontally in the desiredproportions and advancing each of these small masses, after it is laid,endwise to devices which will remove the stock by continuously combingor hooking it off, taking off an equal amount in thickness from eachlayer all the time so that the stock which is carried along is uniformfrom time to time, and then delivering it to stirring or mixing 1931.Serial No. 521,803

devices which constantly and continuously agitate it or stir it so thata thorough mixing is secured.

Each successive layered mass should be of substantially the same size,and of rectangular parallelepiped form and each layer should be of thesame length and width, but the various layers in the same mass may be ofdifferent thicknesses. The layers should be stacked in verticalalinement one directly above or below its neighbor.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation partly insection of the device in operation.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an elevation showing the front of the weight indicator dial.

Fig. 4 is an elevation partly in section as from the right of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail end view of the receiving box.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail back view of one end of the receiving box.

Fig. '7 is a diagram showing part of the drive mechanism.

In the. drawings, A represents the floor as of a factory in which is alongitudinal rectangular pit 10 over part of which is a floor 12 whichserves as a platform on which an operator such as O can stand. 11represents the ceiling and 13 the regular top of the floor.

W represents a weighing device which includes a receiving box 20 shownas having a flat hinged dump bottom 21 held in place by a latch L andhaving also closing means 45 by which it can be closed after it has beenopened to dump the contents.

Box 20 is shown as being steadied by guides 24 and suspended by rods 25from levers 26, 26 pivoted to hangers 27, 2'7 by being fixed to a rod126 which carries an arm 28 which engages one end of another scale bar29 the other end of which is connected to a rod 90 which enters anindicator 91 having a dial 92 around which are the usual visible weightmarks 93 running from one to one hundred and the movable weight signals94, 94, 94 which can be moved around and put in such places as desired.See Fig. 3.

These may be colored, for instance, to indicate red, blue, black, etc.and the dial is in such position that the operator 0 has it directly infront of him at all times.

96 is a pointer of any usual type which moves around the visible weightmarks indicating the weight in box 20. I

C indicates conveyer mechanism as a whole and includes a horizontalapron 30 which forms the bottom of a chute having sides 100 and 101 andtravels around rolls 31, 31, one end of apron 30 being under receivingbox 20.

33 is a spiked lifting apron which extends down proximate the end of thehorizontal apron 30 which is not under box 20 said lifting apronextending over the roller 34 at the bottom and 35 at the upper end of anenclosed casing 36.

37 is a comb of well known type such as used in many wool feedingdevices and S indicates stripping mechanism which may be a brush rollerthe function of which is to remove stock from the upper end of thelifting apron and to deliver it to any of the well known types of mixingpickers indicated by M.

This picker M rests on the floor A and has a horizontal feed apron 50which receives the stock from stripping mechanism S and carries it alongthrough the boaters inside of casing 51. These beaters amount tostirring means which agitate the stock received from apron 50 therebymixing it as it comes along and 52 represents delivery means forclearing picker M shown as a fan 53 and pipe 54 which pipe may extend toa receiving bin in any suitable position.

The various kinds of stock are indicated by the letters R, B, G and Pand the batches or different positions of the stock by the numbers 1,and 2.

The operator 0 stands next to the receiving box 20 and the trucks T, T,T, T, each preferably containing wool of a different color such as red,blue, green or purple or of different quality are pushed up so that hecan easily reach into each one for the color desired.

The dial 92 may have the visible weight marks 93 running around from oneto one hundred pounds and the weight signals such as 94 are moved intoposition as 20 for red, 15 for blue, 35 green and 30 purple, the laterbeing at the 100 mark.

The operator takes from the red truck handfuls of stock which he dropsinto the box 20 until the pointer reaches the red signal after which hestarts with the blue as far as the blue signal, then green and purpleuntil the total of one hundred pounds is reached.

Each color is spread in layers as evenly as reasonably possible, the box20 being perhaps four feet wide and eight feet long and of a convenientdepth to hold perhaps one hundred pounds of wool.

If the one batch was dumped before the preceding batch or mass had beenmoved by the horizontal conveyer apron 30 out from under, there would bean overlapping and undesirable piling of the stock.

To avoid this, there is preferably provided locking and unlockingmechanism for a latch for the dump bottom 21 which cannot be releaseduntil the first batch such as that marked 1 in the drawings has gotclear away from under the second batch marked 2.

As shown, the receiving box 20 has a flat dump bottom 21 which can beheld up by what I will call a latch L through the medium of ropes 42, 42which pass over loose pulleys 43 one at each end of box 20.

The bottom 21 is shown as two doors of equal size each hinged one at thefront and the other at the back of the long side of box 20.

The ropes 42 after passing over pulleys such as 43 are wound as uponbarrels 44, 44-earried at each end by a shaft 144 at each end of whichis a hand wheel 45, 45 by which the doors can be closed.

46 is a ratchet fixed on shaft 144 which engages a pawl or handle 47which can be manually released when not locked by the latch lockingmechanism which will be now described.

The latch may be considered as including the pawl and ratchet while theropes, barrels and hand wheel may be considered part of the latch ormerely as the mechanism for closing the bottom of the box.

128 is a plunger normally pushed forward by a spring 49 so as to passback to the handle of pawl 47 whereby it cannot be manually opened.

This plunger 128, however, is controlled by a 90 solenoid 48 whichconnects by suitable conducting wires 40 and 41 with a switch 141carried at the end of the swinging arm 140. This swinging arm is carriedby a bracket 142 fastened under the floor 12 in such position that itwill slide over the top of a mass of fibers such as 1 or 2 as that massis carried along by the horizontal apron 30 thereby through switch 141keeping open the circuit through the wires 40 and 41 and solenoid 48,thus preventing the latch from being operated to dump box 20.

However, when the arm 140 drops to the vertical position as shown by thedotted lines in Fig. 6, the electric circuit is closed, the solenoidwithdraws the plunger 128 and the operator can then unlock the latch andallow the mass of fiber in the box 20 to be dropped on apron 30.

This apron 30 normally may move perhaps one foot a minute while thelifting apron 33 may travel one hundred fifty feet a minute and themechanism of the picker and blower may travel still faster.

The driving mechanism shown is substantially as follows:

The shaft 60 has a pulley 61 which by means 115 of belt 62 drivesanother pulley 63 for the fan 53. Pulley 65 also carried by shaft 60drives a belt 66 which engages the pulley 67 on shaft 68 which shaftdrives the picker.

A small pulley 69 on shaft 68 through a belt 70 120 drives anotherpulley 71 on shaft 72.

Shaft 72 carries a large gear 73 which engages a smaller gear 74 on acounter shaft 174 which carries a sprocket 75 which by means of a chain76 drives another sprocket 77 on a shaft 78 which carries the bottomroller 34 of the lifting apron.

Shaft 78 carries a small pulley 178 which through belt 80 drives a verylarge pulley 81 which is revoluble with a small pulley 181 and thissmall pulley 181 by means of belt 182 drives 1 another large pulley 82which revolves with a small pulley 183 which drives a belt 83 which beltdrives another pulley 84 revoluble with roller 31 for the horizontalapron.

The stripping roller S which cleans stock from the lifting apron 33 isshown as driven by a belt 136 which extends from a large pulley 135 ontop roller 35 to a small roller 137 on the shaft of roller S.

The mixing picker can be omitted and the spiked 140 lifting apron 33 ofthe conveyor mechanism can deliver the stock which it combs or pulls offof each horizontally layered mass to any other mixing device or into abin.

The main idea is to form the small layered masses and to thensuccessively comb or pull the stock from the ends.

The stock for each layer could be weighed in any sort of scale and themasses could be formed directly on the horizontal apron by building uplayers while it was stopped. It would not be practical to build suchlayers to form rectangular parallelepiped blocks while the apron was inmotion.

In building such masses on a stationary apron, some sort of form must beused to keep the layers one on top of the other and of uniform lengthand width. Massed layers with the use of suitable forms could be builton a horizontal apron while it was stopped and the apron could then bestarted up, but this would reduce production.

By my process, the apron is constantly moving, each mass being built upwhile stationary and then being dumped or transferred to a constantlymoving apron.

The masses might be built up by weighing the stock for each layer andthen spreading the layers one on top of the other in a rectangulartruck, such for instance as shown at T or in a box of rectangularparallelepiped form, and then tipping the truck or box thus dumping thewhole mass on the constantly moving horizontal apron or conveyor. Eachmass should be carefully dumped in line with the preceding or succeedingmass, but no time would be lost as the line of masses would be advancingall the time and the spiked lifting apron would be constantly cuttingoff the end of each mass as it was presented, whereby small verticalcontinuous sheets alternately of the different stocks of the differentlayers would be carried along and delivered to a suitable mixing pickeror receiving bin.

I claim:

1. In a machine for mixing fibers; the combination of a weighing deviceincluding a receiving box having a dump bottom, a latch to hold thebottom in receiving position and a weight indicator with fixed visibleweight marks, movable weight signals, and a pointer; with conveyormechanism including a horizontal apron one end of which extends underthe receiving box, and a spiked lifting apron proximate the other end ofthe horizontal apron and which extends up over and is adapted to deliverstock to a mixing picker; said mixing picker which includes stirringmeans and means to discharge stock therefrom; means to drive theconveyor mechanism and the mixing picker at predetermined speeds; andmeans to lock and unlock the latch, operative by the movement of apredetermined amount of stock carried by the horizontal apron.

2. In a machine for mixing fibers; the combination of a weighing deviceincluding a receiving box having a dump bottom, and a weight indicatorwith fixed visible weight marks, movable weight signals, and a pointer;with conveyor mechanism including a horizontal apron one end of whichextends under the receiving box, and a spiked lifting apron proximatethe other end or the horizontal apron and which extends up over and isadapted to deliver stock to a mixing picker; said mixing picker whichincludes stirring means and means to discharge stock therefrom; andmeans to drive the conveyor mechanism and the mixing picker atpredetermined speeds.

3. The process of mixing fibers which consists of successively formingmasses of fibers in substantially the same place, each mass being oi!substantially the same size and material and being built up by placingthe stock in layers of substantially the same width and length, eachlayer being of stock of somewhat diflerent characteristics irom theadjoining layers and each layer being of substantially the samethickness through its width and length, and of successively advancingsuch layered masses one after the other horizontally to a predeterminedposition and there continuously removing the end 0! each mass as itadvances; and of then stirring the fibers removed from each mass.

4. The process of mixing fibers which consists of successively formingstationary masses of fibers of substantially rectangular parallelepipedform, each mass being of substantially the same size and material andbeing built up by placing the stock in layers of substantially the samewidth and length, each layer being or stock 01 somewhat difi'erentcharacteristics from the adjoining layers and each layer being orsubstantially the same thickness through its width and length, and oi.successively moving each mass to a new location in alinement withanother similar mass and advancing such layered masses one after theother horizontally to a predetermined position and there continuouslyremoving the end of each mass as it advances; and 01 then stirring thefibers removed from each mass.

OLIVER A. BENCH.

